Guettard, John Stephen

, a French physician and botanist, was born at Estampes, September 22, 1715, and was admitted a doctor of the faculty of medicine of Paris in 1742. He distinguished himself in the study of botany and mineralogy, and his reputation procured for him admission into the academies of science of Paris, Stockholm, Florence, and Rochelle, as well as the situations of censor royal, and of keeper of the cabinet of natural history belonging to the duke of Orleans. He travelled much in quest of knowledge, and he published in the collection of the academy of sciences, and printed in two quarto volumes, nearly two hundred memoirs, on different parts of natural history. He likewise published some “Observations on Plants,” Paris, 1747, 2 vols. 12mo. He died Jan. 7, 1786. The Guetfarda, in botany, was so named by Linnæus in honour of him. Guettard assisted La Borde in that splendid work entitled " Voyage pitto^ resque, ou Description generale et particuliere de la France,' 1 1781 1796, 12 vols. fol. ²